Thomas Luttrell

Sir Thomas Luttrell (born before 1490 – died 1554 ) was a wealthy Anglo-Irish landowner of the sixteenth-century Irish Pale. He was also a distinguished lawyer and judge who held the offices of King's Serjeant, Solicitor General for Ireland and Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas. Background He was born in Dublin, the eldest son of Richard Luttrell of Luttrellstown Castle, the head of a prominent Anglo-Irish family, which came originally from Lincolnshire, and his wife Margaret FitzLyons or FitzLeones, daughter of Patrick FitzLyons of Dublin. His exact date of birth is not recorded but it was almost certainly before 1490 since his first marriage took place in 1506. Little is known of his younger years, other than his early marriage to Anne Aylmer. He was involved in a lawsuit over a disputed inheritance in 1527. He was presumably by then a barrister of some years standing, since he became King's Serjeant and Solicitor General in 1532 (the office of Serjeant was much older and more senior). He was spoken of as a possible judge of the Court of Common Pleas (Ireland) in 1533, and in the next year became Chief Justice of that Court, although Burke indicates it was in November 1533, holding that office until his death 20 years later. Like most of the senior judges appointed at this time, he owed his advancement to the patronage of the King's Chief Minister, Thomas Cromwell, although his legal ability was not in doubt.